


love from the depths of your belly

by sabswrites



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Crush, M/M, kind, soft, ya girl was feeling bitter about cursed child last night so here you go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-26 01:12:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15652725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabswrites/pseuds/sabswrites
Summary: Scorpius Malfoy didn’t have many constants in his life, but from the first day he met Albus Potter, his friendship had been one of them. So naturally, when the love he had for his friend began to take a different form, he was terrified.The story of two boys who loved each other so deeply it confused them.





	love from the depths of your belly

Scorpius Malfoy knew how to do many things, even if the majority of them weren’t done particularly gracefully. Even when it came to things he was absolutely hopeless with, (flying on a broomstick, confidently starting conversations) he had likely read more books about them and had absorbed more secondhand information than he would ever know what to do with. 

Although he was teased relentlessly, his smiles met with scorn and fear. Although girls would kick him when he spoke, and boys would attempt jinxes upon him to win their affections. Although the universe was aligned against him, he found solace in these studies. Well, in these and in his best friend, Albus Potter. 

Whereas he had always felt a need to prove himself in _spite_ of what everyone thought of him, Albus struggled to live up to what was said about his legacy. They were both quite different from what their fathers had been indeed, but in many ways, this proved to be a strength. There remained no bitter rivalry between these two, only a friendship grown out of mutual understanding and love. Yes, there was certainly love there too. 

So when that love began to shift, or expand perhaps. To take an unfamiliar form, Scorpius resorted to what he knew best and immersed himself in the library. He scoured for explanation in tomes about love charms, searched for comprehension in records of infatuation spells, and even analyzed the contents of a love potion, wondering if he had been accidentally exposed. Each of these excursions, of course, fell flat, all the while Albus had begun taking offense to his peculiar manner. 

_“Are you avoiding me, Scorpius?”_

_“What me? Of course not mate! How could that possibly be so when I am in fact right here? Silly you!”_

Frustrated to no end, Scorpius knew he had to speak to someone about his feelings to prevent himself from going entirely mad. But who was there to turn to? His father had never been the type for giving advice, and he couldn’t very well talk about this with Albus. For a solemn moment, his mind wandered to the image of his mother. _She would have understood._ Nonetheless, he worked with what he had. 

-

“Rose!” Scorpius called one morning as he rushed up behind her in the Great Hall, “Do you think we could talk for a bit?” 

Rose sighed as she bid farewell to the girl she had been walking with and turned to meet Scorpius’ eyes. “What do you want, Malfoy?” Although she had been considerably nicer to him lately, Scorpius had the feeling a touch of old resentment toward him remained within his Gryffindor companion. 

Scorpius froze for a moment, now that he had her attention he was unsure of what to say. “Er-- I was wondering if I could ask you something.” 

Rose made an exasperated expression, “Well whatever it is, hurry up! I’m sort of busy you know!” She exclaimed pointing at the scarlet prefect badge on her robes, “Also if this is about the winter ball like I told you last year I--” 

“I understand being busy too! I do things!” Scorpius retorted, calling attention to his, save for the green coloring, identical badge, “And It’s not that either. It’s about uh, some other person.” 

Rose’s interest had been mildly peaked. “How do you mean?” 

“Do you think it’s possible,” he began, “to suddenly feel so... so differently about someone when you were once so sure all you were was friends?”

“What like with my parents?” Rose crossed her arms in scrutiny. 

“Well, there’s a, a friend of mine you see and he’s-- they-- they’ve been thinking about a certain person in a different way then they ever have before, if that makes any sense? You know in a different way than they’re probably supposed to, and they’re afraid of what it means, but mostly what they’re really frightened of more than anything, is royally screwing up changing anything between them and this person.” 

“Well it sounds like, your _friend_ ,” she enunciated skeptically, “simply has a crush on this girl.” 

Scorpius looked taken aback. “Well, couldn't it be something else? You know I was reading once in a muggle science book about chemical imbalances in the brain and how you could be thinking that you’re feeling one thing when in reality…” He trailed off, a mess of thoughts and nerves. 

“Look Scorpius,” this was strange for Rose, as she didn’t usually address him by his given name. “I’m not sure why you’re wasting my time with this when the answer is so obvious. You need to tell this girl,” She thought for a moment and corrected herself, “or this...whoever it is, what you’re feeling about them.” She smiled softly. “Or at the very least you need to stop nagging me in the hallway in attempts to sabotage my perfect attendance. Understand?”

Scorpius nodded, and accepted what that meant. That he’d have to admit something to Albus that he could hardly begin admitting to himself. 

“Thank you, Rose,” he said softly before turning away, “you can be a really good friend you know.” 

Rose rolled her eyes and headed toward potions. “You’re not so bad yourself I suppose,” she called over her shoulder. 

-

Later, Scorpius and Albus entered the Slytherin boys’ dormitories. The cold, green room was empty, save for the two of them. Probably due to the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw that evening. They had given Quidditch games another shot but decided there were about a million things more enjoyable than sitting in a crowded stadium filled with yelling, hormonal, teenagers. 

“Alright that’s it,” Albus proclaimed as they walked in, “you’re telling me what’s going on with you.”

“I told you It’s nothing to do with--”

“It’s something I’ve done, isn’t it? Look, I told you how sorry I was about transfiguring your eyebrows pink, but you know I’m rubbish in that class! Besides, it wore off after two days!”

“People called me ‘strawberry eyes’ for weeks!” Scorpius whined. “But no, it’s not about that.”

“Was it because I started the rumor about Polly Chapman fancying you? Because I didn’t think you’d mind! Honest!”

“No, it’s… wait you did what?!?” 

Albus gave a guilty shrug. 

Scorpius sighed, “No, It’s neither of those things. Nor anything else you’ve done. This is about me not thinking clearly.”

“Scorpius you’re really starting to freak me out!” Albus shouted, “And if after all that we’ve been through together you can’t talk to me about this one stupid thing then I really don’t know what to say!”

Scorpius half expected him to storm out, to leave him alone. Again. But there he stayed with his arms crossed and his eyes wide. 

“Well?” 

“Well, since you’re forcing me to I guess I’ll just have to come right out and say it! And you know I’m really sorry if this messes everything up but I think I’m starting to fancy you and well… maybe I always have.” Scorpius said this all in one breath and then sat on his four-poster with his stare fixed on the floor.

Albus looked as though he had been smacked. “Why would you… how long have you… what made…” He closed his mouth and then joined his friend, sat in silence. After a long while sitting like that together, two flustered boys who loved each other so deeply it confused them, he was the first to speak again. “I had no idea.” It was a very quiet statement, hardly louder than a whisper. It came out a bit like a pained whimper, and Albus was afraid Scorpius hadn’t even heard it at all.

He did though. He heard this and kept looking downwards.

Albus took a shaky breath and summoned something from deep within himself.   
“You mean the world to me you know.” 

For the first time, he met Albus’ gaze. “So do you think we’ll still be okay because of this,” Scorpius asked, his voice lined with fear and uncertainty. 

Albus leaned over and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. “Yeah,” he said, “I think we’ll be fine.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you loads for reading! I'm sure this is overly saccharine but I was thinking a bit too much about cursed child last night and couldn't help it! If you'd like to say hello visit me at http://usnesa.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> \- sabs


End file.
